Chapter 21
A Spirit's Wrath
Of course she'd be in a dilapidated old house with creaky shutters, broken windows, and a rotting porch. With the dark trees circling the forgotten hazard, it's the Hollywood layout of a spirit fest if I've ever seen one. I'm already freezing, and now we're heading into the haunted mansion; one fitting to every cliché ever dreamed up. This is so infuriating.
What a stupid, unoriginal human witch. Do the humans not have any imagination?
Kane pulls off his jacket and wraps it around my shoulders when he feels the violent shivers trying to make me convulse. Then he wraps his arm around me, pulling me in close as we casually and silently make our way through the house.
"She's not here," Dice gripes. "She was here though. It looks like this is where she comes to hold a séance and speak with the spirit. It's private and secluded enough, and there are pentagrams everywhere. It's very likely she'll be back. We're going to set a trap, and hopefully it'll work."
Kane nods just as Dray walks in. "Take Alyssa home for now. We'll call you if we need you."
"I want to stay," I quickly interject, knowing it's not a good idea for me to be alone with Kane.
"Sorry, but spirits can sense a mortal's life. It won't know our immortal lives are here. It'll be easier to surprise the human witch if her unknown associate has no clue we're lying in wait."
I grumble under my breath, and Amy crosses her arms over her chest, venom seeping from her eyes as she stares holes through me. I'm sure she'd like to set her beast free on me right now, but she refrains.
"Kane, will you come back with us when all this is done?" Amy asks, her doe-eyed expression so deceitful.
It's hard to look sweet and disarming when you're a vicious predator.
"We've still got Castine to worry about. I'll see you guys later," Kane murmurs over his shoulder while rushing me out of the house.
I almost laugh at his haste, and then I start running beside him as he keeps a human pace. I'm not sure why he's running, but I'm running because it's absolutely freezing out here now... literally.
The ice has started forming over the small puddles that are lying in the small divot-like areas on the ground. My breath fogs in front of me, and my skin burns everywhere winter's kiss touches it.
I start his car, using my magic, urging the heat to hurry up and find me, and he lets out a small laugh as he opens the door for me. He struts to the driver's side after closing the door, and he smiles as he finds his place beside me.
"So, I was running because it's cold as shit out there, but why were you running?" I ask as he starts backing out.
He turns onto the street, and I realize we're not too far from my house now. It's a little creepy to know this bitch has been calling out to the spirit planes while just down the road from me.
"Because I just heard them say they were staying there and we're going back to your place... alone. Of course I was in a hurry."
I laugh nervously as his fingers lace with mine. He draws my icy hand closer to his lips and I revel in the warmth of his breath as he kisses it.
"You're not going to behave, are you?" I groan, pulling my hand back when he goes to shift gears.
"Hell no."
I sigh out, stifling a laugh, and then we turn onto my drive in record time. Kane smiles deviously as he walks around to open my door for me.
"I think you should work on your skills against a night stalker subduing you some more."
"I'm sure you do."
He chuckles lightly while pulling me from the car, and then our fingers entwine. It's hard not to touch him when he wants to touch me. I almost prefer the asshole as opposed to the amazing guy he is. Night stalker or not, I'm still in love with him, and that's not something I can keep denying if he keeps being this perfect.
When I shiver, he pulls me closer, giving me some heat that flows so freely from his masterpiece of an immortal body.
"I should have known no human body looks or feels as good as yours," I grumble.
That was an accident. I didn't mean to say it aloud, but it definitely draws a smile to his lips.
"I think it's time you get reacquainted with my immortal body."
Everything in me flames, leaving me drenched in desire as he gives me a sexy wink. He unlocks and opens the door to my house, and I swallow hard as we walk in completely alone. The lights are all off, though I can see a faint glow of a candle light coming out from under the door upstairs. Apparently Dice doesn't take fire hazards seriously.
Kane swirls me into his arms with a motion that provokes a laugh from me. I giggle lightly until he stops spinning me and brings his lips to mine without warning. Before I think about what I'm doing, my hands are tangling in his hair and pulling him closer.
He tastes like the man I fell in love with, and he still feels like mine even though he's not. As my sanity flees and leaves me alone with my overwhelming heaps of need, my hands get greedier, sliding down his chest and then diving below the waist of his jeans. His fervent kiss grows stronger, reeling me into his seductive hold.
"Do it," I murmur against his lips.
"Plan to," he says with a devious grin.
"I mean, take my blood."
He pulls back; his eyes alight with scandal as my hand comes back out of his pants. "No, you mean bite you. But I can't... not until you're immortal and not addictive."
"I'll cure you again," I say far too casually, not believing those words are even coming out of my mouth.
He lets a small laugh out, forcing a tingle to spread throughout me, and then he pulls back.
"I knew you liked it."
He starts to come toward me again, his carnal promise glowing in his blue eyes. The green have vanished completely, leaving me with the dark, sexy night stalker, and I love it. I'm officially a psycho.
Before he reaches me this time, he's thrown backwards and pinned to the wall. Glass shatters behind his accidental trail of destruction, and then I'm suddenly joining him, shrieking as my feet lift from the ground and I stay suspended against the wall when I pound into it.
I feel powerless, almost subdued by a night stalker, as I struggle uselessly against the invisible force I can't see.
"Fuck," Kane grunts, straining with all his might to move his hand.
I can tell he's trying to get to his phone, so I do my best to aide him with my magic. That endeavor proves to be completely pointless when nothing within me stirs the least. It feels like there's a lock on my powers and an anvil on my chest.
"There you are," a familiar voice says, and Kane's eyes grow wide when he finds the girl before I do.
The blond from his party - the one Amy knocked out. It's her?
"Kane Ice and his little chew toy, how sweet," she drawls out, slowly walking down my stairs as if this is her house.
How did she get past my barrier? I'm starting to think it's pointless to even cast a protection spell these days.
"Fucking shit, Jen, what are you doing?" Kane strains out, barely keeping an understandable tone against her crushing force - the spirit's crushing force she's channeling.
Her black halter top reveals more cleavage than most women care to show, and her tight, hip-hugging pants reveal all of her perfectly shaped curves as she swishes her hips from side to side. Her hair is cut and styled exactly like mine. Creepy.
"What am I doing?" Her laughter follows the question she considers to be rhetorical.
Does she really expect us to know the reason for her insanity?
"You thought I was just some bimbo you could taste and toss away, didn't you?"
This is her reasoning behind the madness? Oh good grief.
"Jen, it wasn't like that. It was-"
"It was what, Kane? Tell me," she barks, though she doesn't allow time for a response before continuing. "It was a feed? A night of fun? You picked the wrong girl. I've been hunting down the fey for years. One of your kind killed and butchered my family before leaving me just barely alive. I shouldn't have survived, but I did. I knew I'd track down all of you and slaughter you with as much mercy as my family was offered."
Kane winces, the scars of his own tortured past suddenly tainting his face. I'm such a callous bitch that I never even told him I knew what Castine did to his family before turning him.
"I know you think I'm the enemy, Jen, but I'm not. I was a victim, just like you, only I was turned instead of left for dead. It isn't black and white. I swear I've never killed anyone who didn't deserve to die. You have though. You've killed and hurt more good people than I have."
"Ha! The shapeshifter? You call him good? He was a blood-sucking demon just like you. When he was dying, I was shown the sins of his past, just as I've seen the sins of your past. Amy? The bitch that refused to just die, you call her good? She's a blood-sucking demon, too. Her beast is too savage for you to fathom, and it's only going to get worse. And then there's the werecat. That bitch had shredded more innocent lives than even you. She deserved a much crueler death than I had time to spare."
I'm suddenly curious about this sinful past of Kane's, but he's a night stalker. On some level I knew there was a destructive and deadly trail. Not to mention, this isn't the time.
Right now I need to focus on getting out from under this hold. It's so much harder than it was earlier. Apparently this bitch didn't use so much strength then.
A distressed grunt slips through my lips when I'm unable to snap free from the invisible force. I glare at her, wishing my magic would just break through the fabric I can't see.
"Feisty little snack you've found," she snarks after a long pause, and then she kneels to the floor and presses the palm of her right hand to the hardwood.
"Just let her go. It's me you want," Kane grunts out through gritted teeth, his words sounding more and more labored each time.
She tilts her head, her crazy eyes meeting mine. "But she wants her."
She?
"Who... wants-"
That's all I can manage. The force on my chest is too painful to let anymore words escape. How in the hell has Kane been talking?
The crazy girl just laughs ridiculously loud, and beneath her hand forms a flash of fire and then smoke. It clears quickly with a magical aid, and then the pentagram is all that is left on the floor beneath her hand. I get sick, knowing this is it.
"The one who died because of you," she murmurs vaguely, leaving me only more confused.
Just when I think she's about to choose one of us to be her third and final victim, she starts chanting. I cringe when I hear the summoning spell I never thought a human could use. I've only ever seen it successfully executed once, and it was my mother behind the chant then.
A gasp rips through my lips when a body appears in a fading motion. It's a girl lying there, writhing in pain as her body jolts from the hasty summon. I don't know her, but I can tell she's dark when her eyes light up a hazy purple. I hold my breath as though it will help.
It's a black widow. This is bad. This is really fucking bad.
I watch in disbelief as the dark hair whips around the convulsing girl's face. She cries out her piercing shrieks as the summoning spell leaves her in excruciating pain. I don't even know how she acquired the blood and hair necessary to complete the spell.
The black widow screeches out her pain again, only to be met by an invisible punch that jars her head back and draws blood from her mouth. The sadistic Barbie running the show just laughs.
"Are you going to tell me she's innocent as well?" she scoffs, her eyes burning into Kane's.
Despite the pain I know he has to be suffering through in order to talk, Kane tries once again to reason with the sociopath holding us captive.
"Jen, you have to stop. You have no idea what killing her will do. You'll have a swarm of widows after you if you do this. Not to mention, you'll be inviting this spirit to live within you until it sees it fit to evacuate your body. More than likely, it'll dwell within you forever. You'll never have control of your body again, Jen. It'll rule you, and you'll have to watch everything you do like you're on the other side of the looking glass."
Her eyes burn through him as her face distorts, the wicked humor fleeing completely. "She wouldn't do that. She's only coming into me to kill all of your filth, and then she'll leave me after she's done what I've asked."
So frigging stupid.
"Did she say that exactly?" Kane forces out with more strain.
The pressure in my chest is threatening to crack my sternum at this point. Tears are teetering on my lids from the unbearable pain.
"Yes," she growls.
"Those exact words?" he repeats.
"She promised me she'd give me what I desire the most, and then she'd leave me in peace. What I desire the most is all of your filth to be gone."
A luminescent silhouette forms in the room. It's nothing more than a weak medley of faded lights, but I can sense the powerful presence the meager light brings. The power behind our restraints tightens, deepens, and almost suffocates my weaker body. Kane struggles as well, finally unable to speak anymore.
The spirit is silencing him, keeping him from casting doubt upon the fragile mortal mind of the human girl who is toying with things far beyond her realm of knowledge.
Kane's hand manages to find mine, and he squeezes my hand as the girl starts the chants again. Jen pulls out a seemingly unremarkable curved knife with an ivory handle. It gleams under the light, and I clutch Kane's hand with what little strength I can muster.
She leans forward and the wrists of the widow split open beneath the blade. The red spills from her veins, running through and darkening the pentagram that is now burned into my floor. The venomous spit froths in the mouth of the spidress as she struggles to lay a deadly bite. Ineffectively, she snaps at the air, unable to break the invisible binds holding her down.
Her webs form at her hands, ready to strike and subdue the evil bitch with supernatural help, but they turn to ashes instead of finding their target. This is one seriously strong spirit.
The spidress spews some unintelligible rant in her widow language, and then she's gurgling on blood suddenly as it pools in her mouth. Before our eyes, her throat is ripped free by the invisible hand of the lit force.
I gasp and shut my eyes, unable to see the morbid sight before me. I struggle for my inner strength to emerge, but then I feel the power in the room growing stronger as the thunder and lightning ring out and crash outside. The air in the room swirls, bringing with it a dizzying effect.
I open my eyes to see the glowing force of the spirit surrounding the room with its more dominant presence.
"Alyssa, we have to find out what she wants and let her have it without provoking her once she takes over. Whatever her price, it'll be worth it to keep you alive, so just let her go," Kane whispers through strain.
As the spirit turns into a shape, I get sick at my stomach. Blond hair and a faint tattoo on the side of her neck show. She was a light user, a protected light user. Only the protected bear the symbol of our council.
She's breathtakingly beautiful even in her transparent form as she walks over to her worshiper. Jen stands to her feet, admiration oozing from her eyes as she gapes at the girl who couldn't have been older than eighteen when she died.
"That's all three," Jen releases with a breathless air.
"You did well. Now I'll give you what you desire," the eerie, chimed voice of the spirit murmurs.
Jen gives a grin full of malice as her eyes spark with sadistic excitement. "All of them. I want them all dead."
The spirit smiles, nodding as she affectionately strokes the cheek of her loyal follower.
"I know, but it's not what you desire most."
And there's the trick Kane warned her about.
"Yes it is!" Jen spurts, shaking slightly when Kane's planted seed of doubt starts to sprout.
"No," the spirit says softly, "it isn't. You desire to be with your family more than anything, and that you shall do."
With that, Jen's neck snaps, and I let a shrill squeak out as her lifeless body collapses to the floor. Kane's grip on my hand tightens, and I look over to see the spirit's lights returning and scattering before plunging into the mouth of the dead body.
Jen's body now hosts the evil spirit, and it gasps for air inside its new host as the bones in the neck pop back into place, making me queasy.
"Finally," she gushes, feeling her corporeal self. Then her eyes cut toward us. "Now for the two of you."
"Who are you? What do you want?" I ask, finally able to feel some relief from the pressure as my adrenaline pumps and fuels my strength.
Her eyes glisten, a secretive menace lurking within, and then she murmurs, "Sylvia Asine." I gasp at the revelation, and Kane swallows noticeably hard. "And all I want right now is you."